Magdalena Dakeva, Midterm Assignment 2

I have adhered to the Duke Community Standard in completing this

assignment.

Variation in the pronunciation of the phoneme /h/ in the

word vehicle among Duke students

Choice of linguistic variable

A linguistic variable is a feature chosen as the focus of a sociolinguistic

research with two or more variants that carry social meaning (from Class

Notes). The dependent variable of choice for the study proposed is phonetic -

the phoneme /h/ in the word vehicle which has two variants for

pronunciation [h] and ([vihkl] and [vikl]) (Oxford Dictionary)).

It is interesting to examine this variation to determine what triggers it,

what factors (independent variables) affect the use of one variant over the

other. Some of the social variables affecting the preferred pronunciation of

this linguistic variable relate to the social identity of the speaker:

region/geography, social class, educational level, gender. I am going to

further discuss the possible contribution of each of these social units below.

This is a good variable to focus on since no prescription for its

pronunciation exists in American English (as opposed to British English

[vikl] (Oxford Dictionary) and an examination of how variant usage links to

the independent variables could also help us make more general conclusions
about the influence of social factors on language. In addition, the variation is

comparatively easy to study since the word vehicle occurs often enough in

language, prompting speakers to use it is easy, and we would expect no

hypercorrection or linguistic insecurity (Mesthrie et al. 2000, p. 90) during the

study (there is no prescribed norm that might alter participants typical

pronunciation of the word).

Significant independent variables

I expect the results obtained to show a strong correlation between

pronunciation and geographical region of origin of each subject some areas

will explicitly use one variant, while others will use another. Native

country/state, current residence, ethnicity, and sound system of the native

language would affect what speakers consider a correct way of

pronouncing vehicle. The vicinity of particular cities/states or origin of the

parents should also be considered.

Another significant independent variable might be the socioeconomic

status. The higher income participants might use a different variant from the

lower income ones as a result of overt prestige positive or negative

assessment of variants in accordance with the dominant norms (Mesthrie et

al. (2000), p. 92), particularly in areas with historically stronger British

influence (in the British norm the /h/ is not pronounced).

I would also record the major students in the humanities might refer

to British literature and media more often and thus be influenced by the
British pronunciation. As far as other social activities are concerned sports,

Greek life, clubs, etc. I think they will be insignificant to this particular

variable (the word vehicle would rarely appear in these social contexts).

Style and gender are other social units often discussed by sociolinguists

but in my opinion, these will not affect this variation.

Limitations

The study is conducted solely among the Duke students community

which limits the opportunity to examine factors such as age and educational

level. Differentiating socioeconomic status might also be hard since most

students belong to similar social classes. Another possible issue is that the

majority of students come from the same regions (Southern US, New York,

California) so generalizing for the whole country might be challenging.

Methodology

The best results would be acquired by collection of data from a big

sample. According to Mesthrie et al. (2000) (p. 92), the best sample size is

between 40 and 150 speakers. Gathering more might be more useful in this

case, however, since we would want to examine more closely all regions, so I

would study 300-400 participants.

There are 3 appropriate strategies to conduct the study:

1. Rapid and anonymous (online) survey that will ask participants directly:

Do you pronounce /h/ in the word vehicle? This method allows us to

 gather a large set of data in a short amount of time and it will be

accurate since hypercorrection is not an issue for this variable (as

previously discussed). The survey would further ask for place of origin,

current residence, origin and occupation of parents (to give us idea

about the social class of the student without asking directly), ethnicity,

possibly gender (to confirm the hypothesis that it has little effect on

variant used).
2. Asking the subject to read a passage containing the desired word. This

way the speaker will pronounce the word naturally without thinking

twice (which might result in altering pronunciation). The interview will

also include the same demographic questions as in the first case.

3. Initiating a casual conversation on a topic related to vehicles. If the

interviewer starts talking about a field where the word vehicle is often

used, there is a big chance that the study participant will use it sooner

or later. This method avoids the observers paradox discussed by

Labov (Mesthrie et al. (2000), p. 93) the data collected would not be

affected by the process of investigation. However, it might take more

time and thus make it extremely difficult to conduct the research on a

large sample of speakers.

Since I believe the social factor affecting most strongly would be the

geographical region of origin, a larger data set would give us best results.

The first method will be most efficient for this particular variation since

methods 2 and 3 would require too much time for the researcher to gather
enough data. Therefore, I would conduct the study using an anonymous

online survey.

Theoretical model

The best theoretical model for analysis of this study would be the

Labovian Correlation Study model (Mesthrie et al. (2000), p. 78) we are

interested in the correlation between different social units and the speech

choices of different speakers for the phonetic variation we have focused on.

Bibliography
1. Class Notes (9/16/15-9/18/15) Variation in Language
2. Mesthrie et al. (2000) Ch.3: Social Dialectology (76-113)
3. Online Oxford Dictionaries -
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/learner/vehicle